Menu

Gaming Cynicism

Standard

I’ve got cynical about gaming.

Mostly, this is because of how games are discussed in the media, and also how people’s expectations pre-release seem so rarely matched by their experiences post-release. Being in this more cynical place means I’ve not wanted to write about anything gaming-related, despite the many interesting ideas which still exist around gaming. So I either need to let the cynicism out by writing directly about the negative aspects of gaming culture, or I need to explore tangents which are further away from these negative aspects.

Writing about the negative aspects doesn’t seem like a good idea, because it gives greater weight to the bad aspects than the good ones. I’d much rather be sharing new or interesting ideas, rather than just amplifying negativity. Also, I don’t have anything unique to say when it comes to criticising the culture. However, if I focus on what I specifically know about – psychology and sci-comm – then I can potentially find something unique.

From a psychology perspective, there’s plenty of topics I can learn more about, especially now that media and cyber-psychology have grown far bigger than they were when I first came across them. Sci-comm has cultural overlaps too, from how the technologies used in gaming can influence science education, to the role of hype and exaggeration in communication.

This means there’s a variety of ways I can find more optimistic and thoughtful things to write about, rather than following the same old criticisms.